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If the ghost of TV Future had appeared to me this summer and said, "One of the most chilling and nuanced stories on school shooting will come to you courtesy of Kurt Sutter," I'd have called Ghostbusters to rid me of such an obviously fraudulent spectre. Yet here we are, with an opening episode that shows all the little ways in which the Sons' culture of violence and thuggery enabled a sick little boy's quest to shoot up his school. The episode also works as a perfect example of well-executed Golden Age television. Let us dissect it together.
OPENING EPISODE INGREDIENT ONE: Set up the wider community event that will show how the bike club is apart from society, yet probably doing something to harm it. A child shoots up his classroom. His mother is the old lady of a guy in Nero's crew. You will recall that Nero and Jax are now running guns to his old crew, and that Nero's been wholly integrated into the SAMCRO miasma – which means that he and SAMCRO now have to work hard to sever any ties between themselves and the tragedy. And with crazy Lee Toric working any angle he can to make the Sons suffer, SAMCRO's severing job is going to be really hard.
OPENING EPISODE INGREDIENT TWO: Introduce the characters that expand the club's universe while also presenting new threats. This year, we learn that the Stockton waterfront is not only home to the lovely ballpark where the Stockton Ports play, it's also hosting a group of Iranians who like to make torture porn. We find this out because Lyla has somehow fallen sideways into this job opportunity, she barely escaped with her life, and the guilt-ridden Jax is going to make it up to dead Opie by avenging the Widow Winston's honor. This, in turn, attracts the negative attention of Robocop – I swear, I am not making this up – but his animus fades after ten minutes, and then it's all artisanal pastries and introductions to a friendly hooker who's interested in joining the Nero/Jax cathouse franchise. So now we have a new crew of ethnic antagonists, another corrupt law enforcement type and a new mistress for Jax.
(I will cop to mixed feelings on this last point. On the one hand, Jax has deliberately broken his no-ladies-on-the-side promise to his wife. On the other, his doing so heralded the return of a naked Jax Teller. So …)
Also, Tig drowned someone in a tub of pee, because if there's one thing we can count on, it's Tig impulsively killing someone who will be missed. Sheesh! Some people.
OPENING EPISODE INGREDIENT THREE: Catch us up on our characters' personal lives and resolve last season's cliffhangers so we can get on with new business. So here we go: Tig is not dealing well with the death of his daughter; Bobby Elvis looks like he's scheming to start another Sons of Anarchy chapter, but whether he's doing it for idealistic old farts like himself or whether he's the Fortinbras of this entire show is yet to be determined; Chibs works out his complicated feelings toward Juice – not with sex, all you frisky Tumblr curators – by reciting Juice's wrongs and treating him to a beating. Gemma is still ruining Nero's life in slow motion. Unser has become SAMCRO's resident lot lizard – not like that, he's just living in a parking lot, looking leathery and lethargic.
On the prison end: Clay is still alive because Lee hopes to use him to take down SAMCRO in a semi-legal way. Each morning in solitary, the guards bring Otto breakfast in bed, if by "breakfast," you mean "their penises" and "bed" is "Otto's no-no place." Tara has a new prison haircut, for reasons that have not yet become clear, and her digs are nowhere near as filled with humor and humanity as the Piper Chapman joint.
And Jax is not doing a very good job of balancing work and fatherhood, although Happy is a hell of a babysitter. Watching this episode, it's hard not to see the toddler boys and wonder which one of them will ruin their neighbors' lives. This season's going to be all about things falling apart, I can feel it.
Lisa Schmeiser is a reporter, editor and blogger living Oakland-adjacent. She tweets often at lschmeiser.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Sons of Anarchy: So, you know how Tig has this unfortunate habit of killing the wrong woman at the wrong time? Well, it backfired spectacularly on him at the beginning of last season, when the baddie du season, Damon Pope, flambé'd Dawn Traeger in retaliation for his own daughter's murder, then set about attempting to destroy SAMCRO. He got about as far as getting Opie murdered in prison (actually, it was more like "Opie put himself out of his misery"), and then Jax decided to make a deal, insofar as "make a deal" was "hand over a lot of drug money, act deferential toward Pope since he's managed to go legit in Oakland, and bide his time until he could murder Pope and make it look like Clay did it." And why did Jax decide to set up Clay? Because Clay started it.
Actual reason: at the beginning of the season, a few nomads had been folded into the chapter, they were running a side business of breaking into houses as a morale-busting effort ("If we terrorize the people of Charming, everyone will hate and fear Jax!" Clay reasoned, erroneously) and that whole scheme went pear-shaped when the crew killed Sheriff Roosevelt's wife. So that whole mess meant that SAMCRO's relationship with the local constabulary reached a whole new level of uncomfortable, which was the last thing the club needed on account of the ridiculous Pope business and their club president completing his transition to full-bore villain in the wake of losing his best friend. So by the end of the season, Jax dealt with his club's personnel problems by: a) getting Juice to help set up Clay, b) setting up Clay, and c) promising to deliver Tig to Pope's -of-kin (business division) per an earlier deal. He just needs Tig to do a few more things. Tig, by the way, has no idea.
Tara foolishly tried to Lean In on club business and get Otto to sink the RICO case (remember, he had rolled over on Bobby Elvis and the club after the one-two punch of learning of his beloved wife's death and Bobby Elvis having Things To Do with Luann in season two), but Otto is none too keen on Jax, so he killed a nurse in such a way as to make Tara look like an accessory. Because the nurse happens to have a brother who is: a) a law enforcement savant, b) filled with a thirst for revenge, and c) crazy and/or on many drugs, which is always a winning combination for acting judiciously.
Otto has achieved a larger goal -- make life miserable for Jax Teller and his relations -- while also ensuring that his last months on Earth are going to be a meditation in protracted misery. It couldn't happen to a nicer con. As for Tara, she spent much of the season in denial as to the nature of the man she married, but by the end of the season, she was maneuvering to get herself and her boys out of Charming and up to Oregon. This plan has been scotched with her arrest, and last season ended with Gemma sauntering into the space Tara left behind while Jax stared in shock at how ridiculous his life is.
Oh, also, Gemma's rebounded into the arms of Jimmy Smits. We should all be so lucky after a breakup.
Now on with the show …
We open with Jax narrating what he's writing in his journal as we see a child in a Catholic-school uniform getting ready to write in his own notebook. Jax says, "I feel like my life has taken a turn. I'm heading down a road I've never been on before. Nothing is familiar. The signs don't make sense. Do I get off the road or keep riding? Do I get off alone or take others with me?"
We transition from that little boy all alone in his clean, well-ordered room to Jax writing, "Who do I trust for the journey?" as he watches his round little son roll over in his crib. As Jax writes, "I now understand why being a leader requires isolation," we see Tara sitting alone, cross-legged, on her bunk in the holding cell area and writing away on a pad of paper. Also, whoa, her hair looks AWFUL. I am sure we'll find out later which old lady from what criminal faction gave her that Klute-like shag, and there will be tonsorial retribution. (Sidenote: Poor Maggie Siff. At least hair grows back). "I have to remove myself from those whose lives were affected by my decisions," Jax says, and I'm guessing he doesn't mean, "I am moving to a giant hamster ball in the desert since I've basically ruined everyone's lives east of Tracy, California." Anyway, Clay's also in jail and not dead yet, in case you were wondering.
We zip to Gemma making pancakes at Jax's stove and Happy is busy serving them up to Abel, because of course he is. I bet ol' Hap is adamant about a nutritionally balanced breakfast being an important part of every day. Jax VO's, "It's getting more and more difficult to be a brother when my decisions are the ones a father has to make." (BTW, as Happy turns away from Abel, we see from a fresh patch on his cut that he's now the sergeant at arms). We see Tig and Chibs heading down the road together on their bikes, two men who lost their daughters owing to choices they made as brothers first, fathers second. Jax VO's, "By the time you're old enough to make sense of this life, you'll know everything about me. The things I'm proud of, the things I regret. Then you'll be faced with your own decisions. And as much as I want to help you, tell you what to do, those choices will be yours alone."
This last part was overlaid on Nero watching, stone-faced, as Primo and his crew beat some poor guy. Remember how last season, Nero was some Cosby sweater-wearing reformed OG who just wanted to be a good dad? Amazing how quickly exposure to SAMCRO can poison your life, eh? Or is it just Gemma? Discuss.
Jax continues, "The only advice I can give you, sons, is to examine who you are as men. Figure out what's important to you. Know yourselves. Know what's in your heart. Don't be swayed by fears, or history, or the opinions of outsiders. Find your own truth. It will lead you to the things you love." We see that Bobby's riding with a new chapter, then that Jax has concluded his early-morning bout of logorrhea-ic self-deception. (Some people do cardio to ease into the day; Jax writes the advice he wishes he could take).
Then we launch into the episode proper. Gemma coos over Thomas and Jax goes to snuggle Abel, who asks, "When's Mommy coming home, Daddy?" "Real soon," Jax says after a pause. Happy resumes entertaining Abel while Jax and Gemma quietly wonder to one another why Clay is still alive in county lockup.
Jax announces his plan to ride out to visit Tara in her jail all, "I need to ride alone, clear my head" and, having spent two minutes being a dad, he's out the door again. After Jax goes, Gemma frets about the fact that her son isn't too happy about his old lady being behind bars and his ex-stepfather being alive behind bars, and Happy says, "He's doing real good, Mom. His old man would be proud." Tactfully, neither one of them says, "Hey, I noticed that if you do the math, Clay was Jax's stepfather a lot longer than JT was Jax's dad, so if you're referencing 'old men,' well, it gets fraught."
Okay, so you know how some people start their day with yoga, or journaling, or exercise? Otto apparently now gets to start his with a bracing round of sodomy. Once the guard of the day has finished buggering the nearly blind, tongue-less psychopath -- and we get a good shot at the brownish smear across the back of Otto's hospital gown and the streaks of blood on the wall -- Toric comes in and asks, "How's your morning? Yeah, tough one for me too. Had the memorial for my sister last night. It's too bad death is the only thing that puts life into perspective. I'm going to be paying a visit to your MC family today. I was wondering if you wanted me to say hi to anyone, deliver a message. No? You sure? Okay." Toric leaves with a cheery assurance that the rapes will continue until morale improves, and we leave Otto sobbing in his bunk.
I'm sure we can all agree that prison rape is terrible and inmate abuse by guards is awful, but who else is dying to figure out what those blood streaks are? The number of days Otto's been in his windowless cell? The number of guards who have raped him? The beginnings of whatever sick message he's going to write to everyone? I hope we find out.
Back at Teller-Morrow, Chibs and Tig have descended upon Gemma's SUV and are lavishing affection on Jax's boys. Because why take the small boys to their daycare, where they have routines and caregivers they love and the familiarity tiny children crave, when you can just pass them from biker to crow eater to biker all through the day?
As Chibs takes Abel over to Unser's trailer with, "Let's go wake up Uncle Touchy?" Gemma gossips with Chibs, "How's he handling getting passed over for S.A.?" Chibs gently points out that it's only been a few weeks since Tig's daughter was flame broiled and that Tig might actually be working through that instead of fretting over bullshit club dynamics. Not in so many words, but the sentiment is there.
We continue through the exposition and see that Unser's really embraced the role of Uncle, Um, Unser. As Gemma and Tig hand off Abel to Unser, Tig does a little digging of his own: "Things are really moving fast between you and that handsome pimp [Nero], huh?" "You a little jealous, Tiggy?" Gemma asks. "Maybe," Tig flirts back, but his heart's not in it and he's really just fishing for news about Clay.
Cut to Jax and August (Pope's former #2, now the #1) whereupon Jax is learning that Clay's in protective custody. Nobody in August's formidable organization can figure out who wants Clay alive or why, but Jax figures that Clay might have rolled on RICO. However, August reassures Jax that the minute there's an opportunity to kill Clay in Stockton, it'll happen. It has to happen in order for the Pope organization to retain its credibility. Also, Jax needs to hand over Tig. Jax tries to talk him out of it, and the best he can get from August is, "When we finish Clay, we deliver Traeger, understood?" The two men shake on it and their meeting ends.
We see the little blond boy (whose name we don't know) watching a blonde lady sleep. He eventually kisses her goodbye. As he leaves the house, he passes Primo, who calls affectionately, "Hey, mijo." I am trying to imagine a domestic life where family dinner includes Primo passing you a plate of chicken a la king and asking if he can help you with your spelling words before he has to go out and beat up people for the night.
Zip! We're in prison and going by the line of inquiry Tara's got with Lowen, this is dragging on a lot longer than she expected, so it looks much worse than she thought. We also find out that Tara refuses to see Jax. "I can't let him see me like this," she says, and girl, I don't blame you. That haircut is horrible. As Lowen leaves, Tara blurts, "I have to get out of here." Girl, you had to get out of there two seasons ago.
Once Lowen's buzzed out, Jax is on her all, "Did you talk to her?" and Lowen sighs, "She still won't see you." We pull back to see the two of them talking, and I just love how the show broadcasts Lowen's entire professional career in one outfit: Really big cocktail rings on both hands, chunky black platform shoes that are just on this side of slutty, a nylon tote instead of a leather briefcase. Nothing says, "Did not go to an L1 school" like bad accessories. Anyway, Lowen stokes Jax's worst fears by saying, "I still don't know what they have on her … Jax, Tara thinks it was Gemma who turned her in." Jax can't believe it until Lowen recaps the last two episodes of last season and slaps down Jax'a weak "My mother would never go to the cops" with "I think there's very little your mother wouldn't do to keep those boys close." Jax rolls his eyes all, " … You have a point. God, why wasn't I hatched from an egg and left to fend for myself from birth? It would have been less hassle."
Ima pulls up to the clubhouse and runs inside as fast as her stilettos will carry her. She bursts inside looking for Jax. "What's this gash doing in here?" Chibs helpfully replies. Ima shrugs that off. She begs, "Please, I need your help. Lyla's hurt really bad." Happy, Chibs and Tig are all on it; as they head out, Tig slides his hand over Abel's head and murmurs, "Love you." Uch, this club is ground zero for "too little, too late." Taking care of Lyla won't bring back Ope and providing Abel with a dozen fathers isn't going to make Dawn Traeger any less dead.
Over at Diosa, Gemma and Nero banter a bit. (Her: "I sucked some cock, made a few bucks." Him: "Good. You're buying lunch"). But their good time is interrupted by Jax, who's spoiling for a fight. Correctly sensing that Jax and Gemma throwing fireballs of blazing self-righteousness at one another might be bad for the lunchtime quickie crowd, Nero tells the two Tellers to take it into his room.
Once they're in his room, Jax asks, "Did you threaten to turn Tara in if she took that job in Oregon?" Gemma says with snark, "Guess she finally talked to you." Jax seethes, "No. She still won't talk to me. Lowen told me. Answer the question." Gemma reflexively lies, "Of course not! [waits a beat, then …] I mean, yeah, I may have said something about if she --" "JEEEESUS Christ," Jax interrupts. "I was trying to scare her smart!" Gemma claims, since lord knows escaping the criminal cesspool of Charming and thwarting the boys' eventual descent into a criminal underclass is the DUMB move here. She then tries to throw Wendy under the bus and distract Jax with the will-and-guardian business, but Jax shuts that down and bellows, "Why are you always trying to get between me and Tara?" Before Gemma can answer that, Nero's shouting through the door that there's a slight situation going down.
The situation is Lyla, who's been assaulted repeatedly and is covered in open wounds. As she sobs, "I want Ope, I want Opie," Jax pulls her into his arms. It's not hard to see him thinking, "Yeah, me too."
After the credits roll, we see that Lyla's calmed down a bit and she explains how it is that she came to be covered in cigarette burns and why she has two blackened eyes. "It was supposed to be fetish stuff. Sado-play…cage time. It was torture porn. They never told me. The more I asked them to stop, the more they hurt me." We cut to Ima looking guilty, and we learn that she was the one who introduced Lyla to the Ghanezi brothers. "They had references," she explains weakly. "You're a stupid whore," Jax replies. "I'm the one that got her out of there," Ima shoots back. And honestly, I would have loved to have seen that.
Lyla rallies to Ima's defense: "I asked her to get me the work, Jax. My best asset has a bullet hole in it. I can't do the girl-girl stuff. I need money. I got three kids now." This raises a multitude of questions, such as: Where is Piney's ex-wife in all this and why is she not at all concerned over who's raising her dead son's children? Why hasn't Lyla filed for Social Security survivorship benefits for the Winston kids? Why on Earth hasn't the club set up some sort of Old-Ladies-and-Orphans fund for the families of its brothers? Why did it never occur to savvy businessperson Jax to maybe set up something for Opie's widow beyond a vague promise of a house in the not-yet-built Charming Heights?
I can't believe it wouldn't have occurred to Bobby Elvis or anyone else in the club to do estate planning. I'm just saying, it could be a lucrative sideline for whichever professionals cared to work with the club, and it'd be a hell of a benefit to members.
ANYWAY. Nero asks Lyla why she didn't ask for help, and she says, "I don't take charity." No, she only becomes yet another in a long line of women whose lives get ruined in increments once they're sucked into SAMCRO's orbit.
Within seconds, Jax has decided to avenge Lyla's honor, Ima hands over the address of the Ghanezi brothers out on the Stockton docks, and Nero has introduced one of this season's new characters/complications: Barosky, the crooked ex-cop who control the ports. Nero thinks they have to go through Barofsky to get to the Ghanezi brothers, but Chibs frets that the as-yet-unseen Baroksky will be in cahoots with the as-yet-unseen Ghanezi brothers. So the guys decide to go check everything out before approaching Barofsky, because nothing says "stealth" like "a bunch of middle-aged guys running around with guns, plus their good pal Dave Navarro."
Meanwhile, Clay is expanding his mind by reading Flatland as he waits to see what's going on. Lee Toric helpfully shows up at that moment to fill him in. Toric says, "I know you didn't kill Damon Pope. A man with your skill and experience wouldn't be so careless as to toss a weapon with prints a few hundred yard from a murder scene. My guess? Jax Teller took out Pope. From what I heard, he blames Pope for the death of his friend in the catacombs here. But then he pins the murder on you. Why? Maybe you just didn't love him enough as a kid.
"Outlaws on other outlaws is nothing new, but an old lady turning on her old man is a serious breach of protocol. What happened there?" Clay turns a page and mumbles, "Maybe I just didn't love her enough." Toric smirks and says, "As the proud owner of three ex-wives, that unfortunately makes sense." So now that the guys have bonded over the perfidy of women, Toric gets to the main point: "shift puts you back in gen pop. You know what happens then." "Black pope takes white pawn?" asks Clay. Toric appreciates the attempt at a chess metaphor and asks for SAMCRO. He explains, "Otto Delaney ripped open my sister's throat to beat RICO for Jax and your club. This isn't about a case, or my career. This is very personal." He hands Clay a business card: "If you want to live, let the guard know before the shift." Clay uses the card as a bookmark in Flatland, then begins mulling his options.
We're in Bobby's new digs. As Filthy Phil maneuvers a refrigerator into place -- it looks like a toy to his giant frame -- he frets that Bobby lacks an oven. Bobby's pretty sure he'll be okay. Quinn -- who is even bigger than Filthy Phil -- helps settle the fridge, and while he's dancing the dolly back out from under the appliance, Bobby delicately extracts the admission that Quinn misses being a Nomad biker every day. "Let's talk later," he says. "I want to bounce something off you."
In Stockton, the four main SAMCRO riders turn a corner, interrupting the perambulations of the small blond boy we saw earlier. He stops, watches them ride by, then continues on his way.
Back in Charming, Wendy's just pulled into the Teller-Morrow parking lot. She notices Abel romping on the play structure with Unser and stops for a moment to just watch him. Gemma comes out and asks, "What are you doing here?" Wendy says mildly, "Looking for you. I heard about Tara." Gemma says, "I guess that puts a wrench in your little guardian plans," and Wendy's all, "Guard in the what now?" Gemma reminds us all, "Tara put together a will that named you as the guardian to those boys?" and Wendy's all, "No, that doesn't ring a bell…" Oh my gosh, I really hope that one of Tara's first calls in prison was to Wendy all, "Hey! So about taking the boys and getting out? Something's kind of come up. I'm reasonably sure the two of us might be able to out-think Jax so …"
ANYWAY. Wendy says, "I didn't ask her to do that." And she adds, "Look, Gemma. I'm done fighting. The shit that went down last week? Almost cost me three years of sobriety. I can't do it. Abel's with his dad. If I try to change that, either I'm going to get killed or he's going to get hurt. Just keep them safe. Please." Gemma's giving Wendy the side-eye, as if wondering what Wendy's game is here, but she graciously accepts Wendy's seeming defection from The Land Of Dysfunction. As Wendy walks off, Gemma calls, "What if Tara pushes that will on Jax?" "I am not going to let her make me a guardian," Wendy says. But then she adds ominously, "If I think about it, I think I kind of miss this place."
Hey, it's torture porn central, and the guys who are busy violating a woman on the bed are using circa-2004 rhetoric, I guess because the show already did masked men gang-raping a woman back in season two and they want to mix it up a bit. The SAMCRO boys plus a few of Nero's crew catch the attention of the Ghanazi brothers, they muscle their way in through a combination of professional networking ("We're pornographers too!") and weaponry, and then Jax attempts to exorcise his guilt over Opie by getting all self righteous with, "You hurt one of our girls. A friend of mine, Lyla Winston. The Saffron sisters … she said you weren't real clear about the gig. She had no idea she was going to get cut, burned and beaten."
The Ghanazi brothers protest that in this economy, workers should be grateful for any job. Jax says menacingly, "I'm trying to handle this in a calm, professional manner, but unless you want to be the one on that mattress while four white boys go jihad on your ass, I suggest you pay these girls and let them go."
Tig, by the by, is having a hard time emotionally with seeing one of the women manacled inside a cage, and Chibs has to come over and help him open the cage to free the woman. It's a wonderful bit that shows how Chibs has everyone's numbers, and how Tig is not ever going to be fully "himself" again.
Anyway, the Iranians take this about as well as can be expected, which is to say that they attempt to pull guns on everyone, but we are dealing with SAMCRO and Nero, and not only do their cuts have magical bullet-deflecting powers, they're all in the credits so you know they're going to be okay. Anyway, Jax is kind of horrified by the entire bathtub of pee the brothers have just chilling in a corner, but before he can make someone else pull the plug, a bunch of cops descend and make everyone put their hands on their heads.
When we come back, we're in the kind of bakery that downtown areas specialize in: artfully arranged petit fours in glass cases, distressed wood bookshelves displaying trifle bowls and tisane blends (for sale, of course), anodyne piano music tinkling overhead. In a corner, Peter Weller (aka Robocop, now and forever) is reading a dead-tree newspaper. On the corner outside, we see the blond boy that's popped up intermittently this episode. He's reading a book and drinking milk.
At the sound of a Stockton PD cruiser rolling up, Robocop goes out the bakery's back door and into an alley that belongs nowhere near a downtown area. The cruisers unload the SAMCRO boys plus Nero, and after a bit of Jax's lip, we establish that Robocop runs the docks because he's kind enough to let the uniforms keep the cash and drugs they found. Nero theorizes that Robocop is really Charlie Barofsky, sultan of the Stockton port. Barofsky reminds us all of that fact, drops a little world history on Jax, and then things take a turn for the dramatically convenient. Barofsky perceives a business opportunity for a woman who runs girls out of the port ,disapproves of torture porn, approves of how this crew of sex-positive feminists handled the whole thing, then invites everyone in for macaroons and hooker talk.
Juice and Rat have roared into Teller-Morrow from wherever they've been, and Gemma goes about securing their hearts and minds by giving Juice a little mothering and giving Rat a little above-the-shirt action ("Now you've had your hand on my tits, you can't call me ma'am any more."), then explains the Lyla business for Rat's benefits. She draws Juice aside to dig for information on Bobby. In a few lines, we get Bobby's plot for the season: he's probably going to patch out of SAMCRO; he started Nomad and likely wants to return; although the Nomad chapter's folded, it only takes four members for it to start up again. (The only question is whether Jax is okay with this or whether he dispatches someone to kill Bobby. We have 12 more episodes to find out!)
Then the two of them address the real thing that bonds them together: their betrayal of Clay. Or rather, they discuss it by not discussing it.
Gemma: So how are you?
Juice: I'm tired.
Gemma: I haven't heard anything.
Juice: Can I ask you something?
Gemma: No. And I'm not going to ask you anything. It's done.
She walks off, having aged about 20 years during that exchange. So has Juice. One of those is going to end up walking around T-M like Lady Macbeth all, "To bed, to bed! there’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed!"
Back at Stockton's charming bakery, Tig is inhaling a powdered doughnut and asking, "A crooked cop opens a crooked doughnut shop. No-one else sees the irony in that?" This is the closest I've come to laughing all episode -- which is kind of sad. I went back and re-watched some of the season one episodes recently and what struck me was how very funny they were. As this tragedy speeds toward its conclusion, it's gotten a lot darker and the jokes a lot weaker.
Anyway, Chibs loves the shortbread, Barofsky loves the fact that the torture porn real estate is relatively undamaged (because who gives a shit about mere human beings, amirite?) and everyone resolves to make more money off the ladies in a less burn-y, Iranian fashion.
Meanwhile, back at the jail, Tara's day of journaling has been interrupted by a meeting with Toric. He starts by asking, "How are your accommodations?" and Tara channels Gemma with a caustic, "Confined." Toric says, "I'm sorry. I wanted to give you a few days to adjust before we spoke." Tara's appalled to realize that Toric's the one who got her arrested. "How?" she asks. Toric says, "I focused the Department of Justice on the facts. Pointed out your marital connection to the club. The RICO case. The documents you forged to access Otto. Did you think they wouldn't find those? Mmm?" Tara looks at Toric, horror-stricken that someone actually put several pieces together and built a case. Tara protests, "I only did that so I could talk to him." Toric says sadly, "You are aware these rooms are being monitored? You just acknowledged committing a felony." Tara channels her mother-in-law again and sneers, "You're right. I should wait for my lawyer." Toric points out how waiting for a lawyer does not change how screwed Tara is: "They'll want to make an example out of you. Probably hit you with at least five to seven." Tara snorts, "I guess you're here to tell me how you can help?" "I have no desire to help you," Toric says calmly, and oh my gosh, that is the most stone-cold line.
He then pushes his piece into place: "I want to use you. You need to give up your husband." Tara disputes this by claiming that Jax would never order the death of a woman. Well, the season is young yet, so we'll have plenty of opportunity to see Tara proven wrong. Tara points out that Otto killed Toric's sister as a way to hurt Jax, not help him. Having confirmed that hurting Jax and Tara more or less satisfies Otto and therefore offers his sister's murderer some measure of comfort, Toric switches to Plan B. He says, "I can offer WitSec. Anywhere you want. For you and your boys. I know it's not how you wanted to do it, but the end result is the same."
Alas, Tara does not say, "I hear Maine is lovely." Instead, she asks, "How do I tell my sons I'm the one who turned on their father?" You don't say a thing, Tara. DUH. Oh, this woman. I realize we're supposed to see that she's grappling with her love for Jax, etc., but you'd think that all this free time in prison would have given her the chance to assess how her life's gone since she returned to Charming. At this point, "Having sex with my smokin' hot ex while my stalker's body cools in the corner" is the HIGH POINT. Tara. Girl. In the last three years, you've reconciled with your ex while your other ex went into rigor mortis not two yards away, been held at gunpoint by a baby-stealing Irish terrorist, been cheated on, been held hostage, been fake-abducted by the government, lost your ability to do surgery, witnessed some really sick stuff, AND had Gemma for a mother-in-law … I mean, we all enjoy what Jax looks like with his clothes off, but he has them on just enough to make him more trouble than he's worth.
Anyway, Toric's all, "Not my problem!" He points out that Tara's got two weeks to decide whether his offer's good. Tara decides not to dither and says, "I don't need two weeks. I'm not guilty and I'm not a rat." Toric leaves with, "You take care of yourself, Doctor," and that little reminder of everything Tara has pissed away in the last three years is what breaks her once Toric leaves the room. But the minute the guard comes for her, Tara instantly stops crying, pulls herself into a tight knot of hostility and walks boldly, without a backward glance.
The boys are shooting the breeze down at the docks -- not literally, which is a refreshing change from the way they usually operate -- when Jax comes over, draws Chibs aside and tells him that Juice is back. Chibs says, "I wasn't sure he had the balls to come back here. What are we going to do with him? I mean, we tied up all the loose ends. I mean, we can't ignore all the shit he's pulled. He's a risk, Jackie." Jax shrugs that maybe Juice can earn back their trust. Chibs thinks that's a decision for church, but Jax disagrees: "Our table is in pieces. The shit that Juice pulled? That knowledge crushes the brotherhood even more. Let's give him a chance to prove himself, then decide." Chibs looks skeptical, but he's not of a mind to go against his MC's president.
Anyway, we move into act II on Nero's news that he and Jax will have a meet-and-greet with Barofsky's lady friend in a bit, Tig is to go let one Persian pornographer out of the cage, and the rest of the men are to head back to Charming. Before Jax rolls out, he asks Tig to check out the production equipment. "You thinkin' more Caracara?" Tig asks. "I'm thinkin' you don't need to know," Jax replies. Oooh, ya burnt!
So, Tig heads inside and he's doing an okay job of letting the guy know that SAMCRO's just taken everything riiiiiiiiight to the point where the guy says, "I hope you watch our movies and see your daughter raped. Maybe you'd like to see that. 'Oh, Daddy. Daddy, that hurts.'"
In case you're wondering, if you say such a thing to Tig, he will drown you in the bathtub of urine you've so thoughtlessly left laying out at the place. And then he'll urinate on your corpse. I suppose I should be sad about this in that whole every-man's-death-diminishes-us sort of way, but this guy was a torture-porn-making scumbag so, eh.
We're in Barofsky's sunny shop -- the jazz piano! The fresh flowers, where Colette (as played by Kim Dickens, Deadwood's heroine-madam Joanie Stubbs) is explaining how she and Barofsky go way back. He's merely a pal at this point, but thanks to These Tight Economic Times, her whorehouse isn't seeing the business it used to, and she can't go legit on her own as an escort service/club because of the prostitution arrests on her record. Colette would use Diosa as her business partner and entree into legit club/escort work. She goes toe-to-toe with Nero on her understanding of what it takes to go legit. Jax looks impressed. Or maybe it's Colette's color-block dress, which manages to ride a line between alluring and authoritative. He agrees to check out Colette's place.
After Nero takes off, Colette says lightly, "I see a ring on your finger, but not his." Jax says drily, "He's with someone. And trust me, you do not want to rock that boat." Colette presses, "And what about your old lady? She okay with your line of work?" Jax doesn't have to say anything to make it clear the answer is "No."
As Jax gets on his bike, he catches sight of the small blond boy sitting in front of the store, writing in his notebook. Jax gives the child a long look, perhaps seeing something of himself or his sons in the quiet, well-dressed child.
Back at Teller-Morrow, Unser comes in to chat with Gemma. A bunch of crow-eaters are sitting Abel; Unser told him that Lyla had the chicken pox. "Good thinking, Uncle Touchy," Gemma says. "You know that makes me sound like a pedophile, right," Unser asks. Gemma does indeed. That's why she does it. But she throws Unser a bone: "You know, I really appreciate you helping out with the boys, Wayne. It means a lot." Unser shrugs it off and then prods a bit about Clay. Gemma tells him to shut up, albeit more politely, and Unser says delicately, "I know you got yourself a new friend, but you can talk to me, Gem. I know you better than anybody." Gemma looks like she's about to cry and she admits, "I know you do. But right now, I don't want to know myself."
She's saved from further awkward conversation by Lowen, who's looking for Jax. Her radar pinging, Gemma sends Unser out of her office. Once Gemma and Lowen are alone and Gemma has failed to pry the message for Jax out of his legal counsel, Gemma goes on the offensive with, "Here's a message for you, Lady Law: Remember who you work for." Lowen actually rolls her eyes as she scoffs at Gemma, then says drily, "You're right. Helping Tara and the MC might be a conflict of interest. Guess I'll have to figure out which innocent is in need of a good defense."
But because this is Gemma, that can't stand unchallenged. So she obliquely threatens Lowen's life. While this gives Gemma a short-term win -- Lowen's gaping in disbelief at how this conversation ended -- it probably does not bode well in the long run. Oh, Gemma. I swear, the woman who regards a Pyrrhic victory as a total win because at least she can light her cigarette off the flames from the ruins that are now hers.
Tig wheels the bondage cage off the pier. The Ghanezi brother he just drowned is still inside. Once the cage sinks out of sight, Tig drops to the edge of the dock and begins singing brokenly, "I left my home in Georgia/ headed for the 'Frisco Bay/ 'Cause I got nothing to live for/ and nothing is coming my way …" and then half-sobs, "All the way, baby." Bizarrely, this makes me think of Louisa May Alcott.
No, no, no, hear me out. She wrote a duo of books, Eight Cousins and its sequel, Rose in Bloom. In the latter one, the heroine has a dating pool that is confined to her first cousins, because, oh, let's just wave our hands around and say, "Olden times." ANYWAY, our girl Rose and her charming but aimless alcoholic cousin Charlie are bonkers about one another, except her survival sense kicks in and she tells Charlie she won't wear his promise bracelet until he's lived up to her ideal of a high-minded, idealistic reformer who is also not a horrible drunk. So Charlie decides to head off to India because how else does a nice New England family make its money in the 1800s if not by embracing imperialist exploitation, but before he does, he and his horse go out and get drunk. (Well, Charlie does. And maybe the horse. Olden times!) To make a long story short, he has a very dramatic deathbed scene with Rose one chapter later, and then we get to the mourning. And there's a line in there about Rose finally putting on the bracelet: "She had worn the trinket hidden under her black sleeve for a long time after his death, with the regretful constancy one sometimes shows in doing some little kindness all too late."
And that's how I think of Tig and his grieving process: It's the regretful constancy of someone who is now terribly aware of all the ways he failed his daughter throughout her short life, and how he can never, ever make that whole.
We go to Clay, who is not thinking of Louisa May Alcott in the slightest. He is, instead, thinking of how very much he does not want to get killed by the collection of black men who await him on the other side of the prison door, and so he tells the guard to check his pocket for a card. Oh, this is going to be good, watching Clay play Toric.
Meanwhile, someone who is not Otis Redding is still singing about sitting on the dock of the bay.
We're getting the tour of Colette's place, which is what would have happened if Julia Morgan had decided to ditch architecture for prostitution. I think we're supposed to believe that Colette is classy because she can appreciate a nice board-and-batten finish, and that patina of taste is something that Jax is unconsciously drawn to. Colette adds that the goal was to make the cathouse seem homey for her predominately-military clientele. We see some of the girls walk by and they also seem to be dressing for that hooker--door aesthetic. Jax is digging it.
(I just deleted an entire essay on the socioeconomic signaling that goes on in your typical season of Sons of Anarchy. Suffice it to say that Kelli Jones, who's done series costume design, and set decorators Dena Allen, Christopher Marsteller, Lance Lombardo and Tim Colohan, are geniuses at establishing all the subtle indicators of someone's background and social class on this show. I realize fans of TV costuming all bow at the altar of Janie Bryant but seriously, Jones deserves our slavish worship too.)
Anyway, Colette and Jax talk numbers -- she was doing a baseline of about $4500 a day, she claims -- then Jax asks if Colette's up for mixing up her girls with Diosa's. I wonder if he's hoping to class up the Diosa joint through osmosis. Anyway, Colette purrs, "Variety is the key to stimulation," and Jax flirts back with, "I'll remember that." He gets up to go, but Colette asks him to stay and visit some of the girls. Jax says, "At Diosa, we've got a rule -- don't date your coworkers." Colette laughs, "That's a stupid rule." Then a girl in tasteful lingerie comes in with a laundry update and Colette stands up, sighing, "Mother's work is never done." Colette is like a hooker savant, because she has just figured out that Jax's relationship to his mother is only slightly less loaded than that of Sterling and Mallory and Archer, and Colette's going to work that angle.
Jax takes a call from Lowen, who is not thrilled to have to tell him that Tara would prefer not to have him at her hearing in the morning. Jax seethes over this, then sits on the couch to collect himself and possibly think about a life where his incarcerated wife is not estranging herself from him.
Back at Teller-Morrow Motors, Chibs runs off the one working mechanic they have so he and Juice can have some one-on-one time in the garage. Chibs starts by reeling off the litany of Juice's indiscretions in season four, and it turns out he has lots of unresolved feelings about them. But he's going to try to resolve them…with his fists. Juice says, "I love you, brother," and Chibs says, "I know," right before hitting him. Then he keeps on going, over and over. Juice makes no move to fight back at all.
Colette comes out with her laundry and catches sight of Jax. She makes some small talk with, "You know, I listen almost as good as I suck dick," and God bless Kim Dickens, but I can't help remembering the Deadwood episode "New Money" and Joanie's unnervingly similar conversation with the creepy Mr. Wolcott, which ended with Joanie sighing, "I'll just be in my girls' world, diddling myself."
Anyway, Jax only broods about his problems instead of talking about them, so Colette orders him to help her with the laundry, adding, "Housework always centers my chi." Jax takes the laundry, because Colette has pressed the correct buttons.
Meanwhile, Gemma's campaign to win over Lucius continues. She has given him a Super Soaker, which he loves. Nero sighs, "Yep. A gun. Awesome," but Gemma just smirks at him and cuddles into him.
Cut to Toric shooting up in his motel room, because it wouldn't be Sons of Anarchy if someone in law enforcement wasn't beset by some sort of hypocrisy/moral rot/exploitable weakness.
As a church bell rings out, Tig zips through the bucolic streets of Stockton, passing the little blond boy we've seen all episode. The child walks on to the church grounds as the bell strikes three. He takes off his backpack and his jacket, carefully folds the jacket, sits on a bench for a moment. As the child rolls up his sleeves, we see that one arm is covered in systematic cuts. Then the child pulls out a composition notebook. He writes one more thing in it. The school bell rings, he puts down the book …
… Then pulls out a semi-automatic and walks toward the school. As he leaves, the breeze rifles the pages of the notebook, which are filled with drawings of an avenging angel bowing his head atop a pile of dismembered bodies and page after page of crabbed text reading, "God doesn't like bullies," and "I'm an angel meant to destroy Satan." The camera swoops pass the impassive stone face of a Jesus statue, then focuses on the windows. We see the flashes as the child fires the gun, see blood spatter a window, and we hear screams.
The screen goes black.
It's an unusually decorous depiction of horrific violence -- even if the entire set-up feels a tad "Jeremy spoke in class today" to this Gen Xer -- but what I really like about this is how the entire episode is strung around the idea that this entire situation is shaped by the Sons. Just by going about their business, these guys have done things that led to the moment when a bullied and unwell child decided to pick up a gun. I think in terms of season openers, it ranks right up there with season three; I think it's important to remind the fans of this show that the people we're watching may be funny and charming sometimes, but at some point, they chose to do things that put innocents at risk every day.
When the screen lights up again, it's the awful controlled chaos of the emergency services. We see parents nervously scanning the crowds of children for their own babies. We see a fireman rocking in grief against a fire truck. We won't say a word about this being the third musical montage in the episode.
Transition to Colette making a bed while Jax watches, seemingly transfixed. (How much would you love it if it turns out he's simultaneously aroused and terrified by Martha Stewart? "Oh, yes, Martha! Run that napkin through your fingers as you turn it into a swan! Oh, you napery-clad enchantress! Let's get that napkin dirty!") Oh, Colette is goooooood. She's about to work the "Poor baby" on this guy and he's all for it.
Cut to the shooter's mom, having herself a quiet freak out while Primo strokes her hair and looks fretful.
Clay is hanging in his jail cell, no doubt plotting his move. I love this guy, but why is he alive?
Someone in the holding cell just took Tara's blanket and that is the moment we see that she is Over All Of This. Maggie Siff does with an eye roll what a lesser actor would do with a monologue.
Colette's poor-babying Jax, who is okay with it.
Gemma is busy putting the moves on Nero. If she keeps him busy, maybe he won't have time to think, "Hey, just a few months ago, my sister was alive, my cat house was quietly profitable and I didn't have a gang of feral crackers on wheels tearing up my life."
Tig is at Jax and Tara's place. He sends home the crow-eater who's been sitting for the boys with a kiss, then goes in and cuddles sweet baby Thomas, crooning to the baby before sinking into his state of regretful constancy for some small nurturing done too late.
Meanwhile, Chibs is stitching up all the wounds he gave Juice, which is no way going to reinforce Juice's desperate conviction that SAMCRO will give him a father figure who will love him unconditionally and keep him safe.
(It amazes me that conservative watchdog groups go nuts over this show, because it's a protracted meditation on the importance of raising children in an intact two-parent home. It's also a nice little reminder that if we had nationalized health care, maybe bikers wouldn't feel as if they had to go make deals with the IRA to pay for the treatment that bought their children a little more life.)
At the SAMCRO clubhouse, Happy's sliding a shot over to a cleaned-up Lyla. Which … well, we'll see what happens to the Winston kids in five years.
In his little bedsit in god-knows-where, Bobby's quietly plotting how to start a nomad chapter, if the map he's circling is any indication. I like the show's reminder that beneath that wall of hair resides the mind of a crooked bookkeeper.
And now we've reached the portion of the musical montage where a doped-to-the-gills Donal Logue does his best Buffalo Bill impression.
Because Tara has Had It, she's worked up the kind of head of steam that leads to things like beating the woman who took her blanket. I think Tara's more or less decided that her surgery career is over. I hope for her sake that her student loans from medical school are already paid off, or else sending in $800 a month for the 20 years is going to feel like a stinging insult on top of a career-ending hand injury.
While his old lady is fighting for her bed clothing, we see Jax working out his own conflicted feelings about his loyalties to the two women in his life. He's working them out very nakedly, in fact, with Colette, the lady who embraces his criminal aptitude (a la Gemma) and all his other naked bits (Tara). And while I'm A-OK with the welcome return of "Charlie Hunnam: I Peel For My Art," I'm a little sad because this more or less confirms that Jax no longer loves Tara. He loves the idea of her -- or quite possibly the idea of who he is when he's with her -- but Tara the person asked him to please not step out on him, and he's broken that deal. This marriage is over.
This season, however, has just begun. It's all downhill from here!
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.